Kaesong skirmish

The Kaesong skirmish (19 October 1949) was a border incident between North Korea and the United States on the 38th Parallel. Just five days after the Changpung skirmish, the two sides met again on the highway to Kaesong in North Korea, and more US Air Force personnel were lost.

Prelude
In October 1949, the United States President Harry Truman decided to relocate the US Army, US Air Force, and US Navy's occupation forces in Japan to South Korea to defend the border from an expected assault on the country by North Korea. The Americans were deployed to the 38th Parallel, dangerously close to the Korean People's Army positions. On 14 October, the US Air Force's A-26C Invaders were fired on by North Korean units on the border to the northeast of Inchon and Seoul, leading to diplomatic tensions. Truman decided to ignore the issue and keep US forces there, as he did not want to make the US military look weak and wanted to keep up the pressure on North Korea.

Skirmish
On 19 October 1949, the two sides met again following Truman's deployment of an armored division to the Kaesong-P'aju highway. A squadron of USAF C-114 Skymaster transport planes were fired upon by North Korean infantry and armored units from the city of Kaesong to the north of the 38th Parallel. Once more, the Americans suffered losses in a neutral fire incident, prompting Truman to speed up the deployment of more troops to the border. Although he decided not to turn the incident into a war, he eventually decided to fight against North Korea in the Korean War soon after.